POWYS planners have decided that there is no need for the council to submit an Environmental Impact Assessment to support a controversial proposal to process Black Bin rubbish at Abermule.
In December, a request was made by Powys County Council’s principal engineer Simon Kendrick to the local planning authority asking them to provide a “screening opinion” on the proposal.
When the bulking facility and business units were approved by the Planning committee in August 2018, no specific mention of black bin waste was included in the permission for the £4.6 million facility.
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) issued an environment permit in July 2023 which allows the council to operate the site and deal with 22,500 tonnes of waste a year.
This permit includes provision for black bin waste to be processed at Abermule.

It is estimated that 8,300 tonnes a year of black bin rubbish would be processed annually which is expected to fall due to: “increasingly stricter recycling targets.”
WRAP who supporting Welsh local authorities to “adopt the most efficient and cost-effective recycling services” have produced an EIA screening report for the proposal on behalf of Powys council.
WRAP said: “The planning permission doesn’t specify waste types in the description or place any restriction on the types of waste that can be accepted at the facility.
“The permit regulates the types and quantities of waste at the facility.
“There would be no change to the currently permitted operations or change to the layout of the site; there would be no sorting or treatment of the waste, just bulking up for onward transport.”
WRAP stressed: “The actual control over the facility rests with the environmental permit.
“As the assessments for the permit included residual municipal waste, the handling of such waste at the bulking facility would not lead to a significant risk to human health.”
They conclude that the proposed development does not meet the criteria for development that needs an EIA.
Senior planning officer Rhian Griffiths said: “The information has been considered, and it has been determined that the proposed development does not fall within schedule one or two of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Wales) Regulations 2017.
“No environmental impact assessment statement will be required.”
The facility receives recycling collected from households across Montgomeryshire, where it will be squashed together or “bulked,” so that it can be more easily transported to processors to turn into new products.
Processing black bin rubbish at Abermule is supposed to save the council £100,000 over two years.